Welt guides



Jan. 26, 1960' A. BLACK WELT GUIDES Filed Oct. 12, 1956 Inventor #1 Alexander .Blcw k 2,922,387 WELT GUlDES Alexander Black, Beverly, Mass, assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N..l'., a corporation of New Jersey Application October 12, 1956, Serial No. 615,654

7 Claims. (Cl. 112-46) The present invention relates to improvements in Goodyear welt shoe inseam sewing machines and more particularly to welt guides for such machines arranged to direct a preformed welt into the sewing point in the manner disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 2,509,221, granted May 30, 1950, on application of J. P. Fredericksen.

' It has always been assumed that an important prerequisite for a welt guide in an inseam sewing machine is in the fitting of the guide accurately to the welt throughout the entire extent of the surface area on the welt without imparting excessive frictional resistance to its feeding movement during the progress of the sewing operartion. To secure properly fitting conditions it has been found necessary heretofore, as a welt moves toward the sewing point in a machine, to provide means for shielding the welt against the pressure of a shoe being presented to a machine until the welt reaches the sewing point. Such shielding means generally is U-shaped and has internal dimensions corresponding with the section'of the welt to confine all of its portions closely and a mounting block or frame carries the shielding means in a manner for convenient detachment. There are many'forms of shielding means capable of attachment to a single mounting block but whenever the dimensions or shape of a Welt are changed substantially, different shielding means must be employed. This is particularly true of a guide for a storm type welt having a weather excluding bead.

'An object of the present invention is to produce a superior construction and design of welt guide particularly applicable for use with preformed welts, either of the storm or other type, wherein the same welt confining and shielding parts may be employed for a large range of sizes and styles, which previously could have been sewn only by replacing the shielding means for each change of welt. A further purpose is to reduce substantially the usual frictional resistance to feeding movement 'of a preformed welt through a welt guide in a Goodyear welt shoe inseam sewing machine, wherein the welt contacting surfaces of the guide are smaller than previously employed and are limited to contact with a few areas on a welt, which areas are selected as being most nearly of universal spacing and of standard dimensions for all sizes and styles, eliminating from engagement with the guide those areas whose dimensions and spacings vary widely.

In the attainment of the objects, above referred to, a curved hook needle shoe inseam sewing machine is provided with a welt guide constructed to direct a preformed welt havingan inseam sewing flange and an outsole attaching flange projecting away from each other at an obtuse angle, in which guide there are also provided shielding means comprising a plate portion for supporting the exposed or grain side of the outsole attaching flange, adjustable gage means formed within the shielding means with re-entrant angular surfaces surrounding one corner of the welt to confine the free margin of the outsole flange against the supporting plate portion, the

' 2 shielding means also including a hooked arm portion extending out of engagement with the outsole flange of the welt, while contacting the inseam sewing flange outside the angle only between the outsole and the inseam flanges, thus leaving the remaining areas on the welt free of frictional engagement. By contacting the areas only of the welt outside of the angle formed between the outsole and inseam flanges, a much greater range of dimensions and styles may be accommodated without replacing or adjusting the portions of the guide relatively to each other. Minor adjustments are, with such guide, suflicient to insure proper directing action on the welt with relatively wide changes in dimensions and styles. While such guide is particularly advantageous in sewing preformed welts, the same type of guide also may be employed satisfactorily with ordinary welts of rectangular cross section, such welts, although of rectangular crosssection, always having their inseam sewing flange portions bent into conformity with a shoe during the insertion of the inseam from the plane of the outsole attaching flange portions to form an obtuse angle, rather point in the machine than is usual with this type of guide and actually crosses the plane defined by the curvature of the sewing needle.

Other features of the invention, as hereinafter described and claimed, will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a view in left side elevation of an inseam sewing machine including a welt guide, embodying the features of my invention;

Fig. 2 is aplan view on an enlarged scale of a welt confined within the welt guide shown in Fig. 1; V

Fig. 3 is a detail view in front elevation showing a portion of the sewing needle and the guide of Fig. 2 without the welt;

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view of the guide;

Fig. 5 is a partially sectional view of the guide in left side elevation;

Fig. 6 is a detail perspective view showing a mounting bracket of the guide of the foregoing figures;

Fig. 7'is a view of a storm welt in end elevation, showing a typical form intended to be directed by the guide of the invention;

Fig. 8 is a view in side elevation showing more clearly the frictionally contacted area and the extent of welt area in whichthe guide leaves a typical storm Welt free of frictional engagement; and

Fig. 9 is a view similar to Fig. 8 but showing an ordinary preformed welt without a weather excluding bead, which also may be directed by a guide without replacing any portion thereof, according to my invention.

Up until recent times the major bulk of commercial Goodyear welts has been made of flat leather with substantially rectangular cross sections, a groove only being provided to receive inseam stitches. More recently, however, with the development of plastic materials it has been found possible to manufacture economically a preformed welt, in which an outsole attaching flange and an insole attaching flange project at an obtuse angle from each other, so that an inseam may more easily be directed and sewn along the proper line on the welt and the welt may be brought into conformity more readily with the parts of a shoe during sewing. For these reasons the development of modern preformed welt has been asaaasv plastic or leather, the problem of guiding it accurately ina Goodyear Inseam Sewing Machine with prior welt guides has been made increasingly diflicult. Thus, with the guide ofthe Fredericksen patent, aboye referredto, a. particularlyI desirable construction has,.,been provided, butin .order to accommodate all sizesaand styles of welt it haslbeen necessary to have available fifty or sixty di iferentwelt confiningshields. Replacement of Weltshields in an .inseam sewing machine frequently is troublesome. and time consuming on accountofdhe crowded relatiorrto the other; operating. parts .in the machine and of the danger of injury toithe operatorshands by accidental contact with sharpened pointsof the work piercing instruments. With the-presentillustratedwelt guide it has been found possible toprovide. shielding .means which will accommodate a large range of styles and sizesof welt, including preformed storm welts, without replacement of shield parts, so that as few as three diflerent setsof shield parts may be sufiicient to accommodate every-known commercial form of. welt, "including: those of the preformed type. The novel features of .the illustrated guide with its shield are based on the selection of more or less standard dimensional spacings between certain areas of a welt, to which areas frictional guiding contactis restricted. It has been found that small areas of the welt are sufliciently uniform in their dimensional spacings that little or no adjustment isrequired to accommodate a relatively large rangeof welt sizes, and styles. "Witha largerange of welt sizes and styles it is possible to .direct afwelt accurately ina .single guide because the frictional contact surfaces between the welt and the guide are substantially less than normally experienced, the welt actually moving more freely through the present guide than through prior guides, while maintaining the welt in proper sewingposition with asatisfactory degree of accuracy,

A welt guide illustrative of the invention is shown in Fig. 1 and is arranged with shielding means constructed for directing a modern preformed weltinan inseam sewing machine of the type disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,971,575, granted August 28, 1934, upon application of Alfred'R. Morrill. The machine is operated from a main sewing shaftand comprises, in addition to the Welt guide, indicatedv at 12, work feedingandfstitch forming devices, including a curved hook work feeding needle 14, a work piercing and feeding awl. 16, a looper 18, and a threadfinger. 20. During an inseaming operation, the shoe being operated upon is held against a back rest 22 by a channel guide 24. The welt guide 12 is secured in asplit socket 2.6 (see Fig. 2) integral with an angle block 28 madefast. to the forward end of a welt guide carrier 30. Within the socket is a pin 32 integral with a guidemounting block 34, the pin being; clamped in the socket by a bolt- 36. The carrier 30 yieldingly presses the welt guide 12 forwardly against a shoe and urges the shoe toward the channel guide 2:4.during part of the sewing cycle. The carrier islocked in its forwardly pressed position against the force, exertedby the shoe and the channel guide 24 during the. remainder of the cycle.

A modern preformed storm welt, the cross section of which may be taken as typical of present day use, isshown inFig'. 7, andrcomprises an outsole attaching-flange 38 an inseam sewing flange 40, and. a storm or weather excluding bead 42. The inseam and. outsole attaching flanges of the welt proiect at an obtuse angle to each other, that is, they form anangle of slightly more than 90 along 1 the flesh or unfinished side disposed within the" angle.

The storm head 42 of the welt projects to the opposite side of the outsole attaching flange 38, which is the finished side exposed on. a completedshoe. Thus,.the flanges and head are arranged generally in. the form of a T-secti on, of which the inseam sewing flange- 40 and the head 42 constitute the crossbar, and the outsole attaching flange the stem. A storm welt of this cross section differs fromihat in use prior to the development of plastic welts, in that -the earlier Welts were ordinarily flat; withougangularly V 4 projecting flanges. The weather excluding beads formerly employed projected above the otherwise fl-at grain sides normally exposed in a completed shoe.

The improved guide 12 for a modern preformed welt, in addition to its mounting block 34, includes an outsole flange supporting plate 44, an edge gage 46 having a re-entrant outsole flange confining angle and a hookshaped welt shielding arm 48, the. latter extending outwardly from the mounting block34 in spaced relation above the supporting plate and having .a vertical welt..di-. recting surface generallyparallel -to a.vertical-welt contacting surface on the edge gage. The re-entrant angle of the gage surrounds oue cornerof the outsoleflange and confines it againstthe supporting plate.

The mountingblock-34 for the guide has two channelshaped guideways, shown in Fig. 6, the upper one of which receives the arm 48 and the lower one of which fits the edges of the plate 44vand the edge gage 46. The guideways of the block 34 hold the parts from displace: mentwhile enablingforward and rearward adjustment. To secure these parts together adjustably in desired rela tive positions, a bolt '50 passes through the mounting block,'the;arm, the plate and the edge gage. The hooked arm 48 and the mounting block 34 are not relatively adjustable, the bolt 50 being fitted snugly within a circnlar opening in each. 'To' accommodate various widths, thicknesses and styles of welt, the edge gage 46 and the plate 44 are moved forwardly and rearwardly, the plate 44 being formed with a slot 52 (Fig. 4) and the edgegage having an open-ended slot 54 through 'which the boltQSD passes. I

The welt guide of the present inventioncontacts the stormfwelt 38, 4.0 and42 only throughout areas of limited extent, as shown inl Fig. 8. The re-entrant anglelof the edge gage 46 includes a horizontal. lip 56ioverlyin g the margin at the flesh side of the outsole attaching flange 38, which, together with the vertical side of the re-en tra nt angle, confines the free. margin of the outsole flange against thesupporting plate 44. To retain the margin of the outsole flange between the lip of the edgei'gage and the supporting plate, the hook-shaped arm at its hooked free extremity an internal, generally verticatc om vex surface fitting a concavity within the crossbar of the welt. The arm thus contacts the crossbar portion-only of the welt surface area between the weather bead and the inseam flange, the arm extending elsewhere out of engagement with the outseam and. inseam flanges. To adjust the edge gage 46 properly it is shifted until. it presses the crossbar portion of the Welt against the .internal convex surface of the arm 48. Because. of the limited area of contact between the welt and the guide parts a substantial portion of welt is left entirelyfree of frictional engagement by the guide. In this way-the welt is directed accurately without excessive frictional drag during its attachment to a shoe. Where a weather. ex

eluding bead is employed; the beadpasses through a slot .to the present invention for directingwelts having storm beads or-other surface irregularities for purposes ofxornamentation or unusual shoe construction without. interfering with the movement of the welt through the guide and without replacement of guide parts'when changing welts. The welt guide illustrated in the drawings is eflective by reason of its universal utilitythrougha large range of sizes and styles of welt primarily of the preformed type, that is, in which the. inseam sewing flange projects from the. outsoleattaching flange through an obtuse angle of slightly more than -While the guide shown in Figs. 1 to 8 of thedrawings has been described more particularly in connection with a storm welt of T-shaped section, it is equally. adaptable fo u aw et e wmmpn. rm of e t now ge e al y- :3 available in the market. One such common forin'of welt, while lacking the weather excluding bead 42, is of a preformed cross section, in which the inseam and outsole attaching flanges extend also at an obtuse angle to each other. sole flange supporting plate 44, so that it leaves a slot between it and the hooked extremity of the arm 48, the end of the plate 44 may be shifted to a position located just out of contact therewith.

Fig. 9 shows a preformed welt without a storm bead within a guide embodying my invention. The welt therein shown is of acommon form capable of being directed by the illustrated guide without replacement of parts. It will accordingly be appreciated that the illustrative guide may also be employed to advantage with a large range of welt sizes and styles not having a weather excluding bead.

In certain instances, and in order to provide a more rigid construction, according to certain features of the invention, it has been found advantageous to join together the supporting plate part and the hooked arm part of the guide in a single piece welt shield, especially where a particular style of welt is regularly employed, adjustments not being required for a considerable range of sizes. When sewing storm welts only, with a single piece shield, it is necessary, however, to provide adequate clearance space for the weather, excluding bead 42. Where the plate and arm parts of the guide are combined, the principles of the illustrated guide with its restricted welt contacting surfaces still are applicable to enable the welt to be directed with accuracy and with minimum adjustments Whenever the welt dimensions are changed.

Having thus described my invention, what is claimed 1. A shoe inseam sewing machine having a curved hook needle and other stitch-forming devices, a guide adapted to direct a welt having angularly disposed marginal portions across the path of the needle, the marginal portions of the welt constituting an outsole attaching flange and an inseam sewing flange projecting away from each other at an obtuse angle, said welt guide being provided with a mounting block and shielding means on the block comprising a supporting plate for contacting one side of the outsole attaching flange of the welt, and adjustable means having a re-entrant angle within the shielding means for contacting one corner of the outsole attaching flange to confine the free margin of the outsole flange against the supporting plate, in combination with a hooked arm means separate from the plate of the guide for extending out of engagement with the outsole flange while adapted to contact that portion only of the welt outside the angle between the flanges, leaving the remaining areas of the welt free of frictional contact.

2. A shoe inseam sewing machine having a curved hook needle, and other stitch-forming and feeding devices, a guide adapted to direct a welt having angularly disposed marginal portions across the path of the needle, the marginal portions of the welt constituting an outsole attaching flange and an inseam sewing flange projecting at an obtuse angle to each other, and a weather excluding bead forming with the flanges a generally T-shaped section, said welt guide having an attaching bracket, a supporting plate on the bracket for contacting one side of the outsole flange on the welt and means within the guide for contacting the opposite side and edge of the outsole flange on the welt to retain the outsole flange against the supporting plate, in combination with an arm on the guide disposed substantially parallel to the plate and for extending out of engagement with a major portion of the outsole and inseam flanges while being adapted to contact that portion only of the welt between the weather bead and the inseam flange while leaving the weather bead free of frictional engagement.

3. A shoe inseam sewing machine having a curved hook needle and other stitch-forming and feeding de- Instead of adjusting the forward end of the out-.

vices, a guide adapted to direct a welt having an ularly disposed marginal portions across the path of the needle, the marginal portions of the welt constituting an outsole attaching flange and an inseam sewing flange projecting at an obtuse angle from each other, and a weather excluding bead forming with the flanges a generally T-shaped section, said welt guide having an attaching bracket, a supporting plate on the bracket for contacting one side of the outsole flange on the welt and an angular edge confining gage means within the guide for contacting the opposite side and edge of the outsole flange on the welt to hold the outsole flange against the supporting plate, in combination with an arm on the guide separate from the plate, disposed substantially parallel to the plate and for extending out of engagement with a major portion of the outsole and inseam flanges while being adapted to contact that portion only of the welt between the weather bead and the inseam flange along the crossbar of the T-section at its side opposite the outsole flange.

4. A shoe inseam sewing machine having a curved hook needle and other stitch-forming and feeding devices, a guide adapted to direct a welt having angula'rly disposed marginal portions across the path of the needle, the marginal portions of the welt constituting an outsole attaching flange and an inseam sewing flange projecting at an obtuse angle from each other, and a weather excluding bead forming with the flanges a generally T-shaped section, said welt guide having an attaching bracket, a supporting plate on the bracket for contacting one side of. the outsole flange on the welt and an angular edge confining gage means within the guide for contacting the opposite side and edge of the outsole flange on the Welt to hold the outsole flange against the supporting plate, in combination with an arm on the guide separate from the plate, disposed substantially parallel to the plate and for extending out of engagement with a major portion of the outsole and inseam flanges while being adapted to contact that portion only of the welt between the weather bead and the inseam flange along the crossbar of the T-section at its side opposite the outsole flange, the arm of the guide being hook-shaped and provided with an internal convex crossbar contacting surface against which the edge confining gage presses the welt.

5. A shoe inseam sewing machine having a curved hook needle and other stitch-forming and feeding devices, a guide adapted to direct a welt having angularly disposed marginal portions across the path of the needle, the marginal portions of the welt constituting an outsole attaching flange and an inseam sewing flange projecting at an obtuse angle from each other, and a weather excluding bead forming with the flanges a generally T-shaped section, said welt guide having an attaching bracket, a supporting plate on the bracket for contacting one side of the outsole flange on the welt and an angular edge confining gage means within the guide for contacting the opposite side and edge of the outsole flange on the welt to hold the outsole flange against the supporting plate, in combination with an arm on the guide separate from the plate, disposed substantially parallel to the plate and for extending out of engagement with a major portion of the outsole and inseam flanges while being adapted to contact that portion only of the welt between the weather bead and the inseam flange along the crossbar of the T-section at its side opposite the outsole flange, the arm of the guide being hook-shaped and provided with an internal convex crossbar contacting surface against which the edge confining gage presses the welt, said edge confining gage projecting in the direction of feed across the plane defined by the curvature of the needle. I

6. A shoe inseam sewing machine having a curved hook needle and other stitch-forming and feeding devices, a guide adapted to direct a storm welt across the path of the needle, the welt being preformed with an outsole attaching flange and an inseam sewing flange projecting Qtfinflbtuse, angle from eaeh other, and a weathenei ie ludingbead, farm n withh hea an em r HY shaped, section; said weltguidehaying an attaching bracket and an angillanwelt edge confining gage on thehracket, in combination with other Welt confining means SUITOHHCL ing the edge gage on the bracket and including a snpport ing plate part for contacting one side of the outsole flange on the welt and a hooked part separate from the plate part and having a shank disposed snbstanti ally parallel tov theplate part and adapted to extend out of engagement with a major portion of the outso'le and inseam flanges ,while. being adapted to contact that portion only of the welt between the weather bead and inseam flange alongthe crossbar of the T shaped section attits side opposite the outsole flange. i

7. A shoe inseam sewing machine having a curved hook needle and other stitch-forming and feeding devices, a guide adapted to direct a preformed Welt across the path of the, needle, the Welt being preformed with an outsole attaching flange and an inseam sewing'flange projecting at an obtuse angle from each other, said guide having an attaching bracket andan angular welt d e wnfiait s. seesaw e ca n. m wi h Q1t e t.mn nit g m n ion habra ket pri p a snpportingmlate part for contacting v the ontsole flange on theflelt and;a hooked part separate from the plate,

hayinga shank d isposed snbstan tiallyiparallel to the plate part andadapted to extend out of: engagement with}. major portionof the outsole and inseam flanges while being adapted to contact the welt along the external angle opposite the outsole attaehingfflange, the edge gage beingadapted to hold the inseam fiange of the Welt in contact with the heel; part of the guide.

ReferencesCited in the file of this patent -UNITED STATES PATENTS 

